Frozen rail joints



March 19, 1957 H. L. LANSlNG 2,785,862

FROZEN RAIL JOINTS Filed Feb. 27, 1952 INVENTOR I Horace L.Lansira 5.

ATTORNEY United States Patent "ice FROZEN RAIL JOINTS Horace L. Lansing, Rutherford, N. 1., asslgnor to Poor & Company, Chicago, 11]., a corporation of Delaware Application February 27, 1952, Serial No. 273,639

2 Claims. or. 238-243) trol the expansion and contraction so that the only move-- ment will be infinitesimal, which necessitates the use of welded or frozen joints.

The advantages of this frozen joint construction are many. It ofiers .a jointed track constructionwhich will save untold millions in maintenance costs, because when jointed track is laid with the usual provision for expansion, movement of the rail ends in the joint causes wear and this must be compensated for by periodically tightening the bolts. Eventually the joint bars wear out and must be restored by reformingor replaced by new joints.

Wear in the rail ends themselves may lead to the necessity of cropping the rail so that it can be kept in service'. This costly and wasteful procedure is' avoided in the frozen joint construction; as there is no movement between the parts, there is no wear.

In addition, there is a great saving in surfacing and maintaining the rail through the joints. As there is no expansion opening, there is no impact comparable to the present construction where the wheel loads jump from a gap of from Vs" to M1" and pound the receiving rail, resulting in battered rail and low joints. Battered rail must be built up by welding and the low joints must be tamped up. Again, this is an expensive and wasteful procedure. Thus frozen joint construction can save a good portion of joint maintenance costs.

It may be stated that welded rail does the same thing. This is true, but welded rail costs at least double that of the frozen joint construction and has other important disadvantages when compared with frozen jointed track. When a break occurs in welded track, due to an imperfect weld, inherent rail defects or imposed defects, such as engine burns or similar external abuse, it is necessary to saw a piece out and replace with a short piece of rail, drilling and bolting this in place. This is a slow, costly repair. In the frozen joint construction, a rail is removed and replaced much as it is with ordinary jointed track.

Another disadvantage in welded rail is that when welded track is moved from one location to another on the railroad, it must be cut and placed on a special train for such a transfer; then it has to be pieced in place in the secondary location. Frequently rail is again moved to a third location in track before it is finally scrapped. The frozen jointed track is far more economical to move as it may be unjointed and moved at will.

Accordingly, one of the objects of the invention is to provide the bearing areas of rail joint bars with means of a practical and economical nature which will mechani- Patented Mar. 19, 1 957 cally bite into the contacting surfaces of the bars and rails and securely grip and hold the bars and rails together.

A further object of the invention is to provide the bearing surfaces of the joint bars with a coating for adhesively impaling and holding the grit so that it will firmly remain on the joint bar surfaces during handling and installation. In that connection since the bars are equipped with rail gripping and holding means prior to installation, the bars may be handled according to con ventional practice in installation.

A preferred and practical embodiment of the inven tion is shown in the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a view illustrating the application of the invention to a joint bar, the bar being shown ready for application to a rail. 7

Figure 2 is a view similar'to Figure 1, showing a bar being drawn up by a bolt to its final seating position. Figure ,3 .is a detail perspective view illustrating the head bearing area of a joint bar provided with the grippingarea.

Figure 4 is a detail perspective view of the foot portion of the bar provided with the gripping area.

Similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several figures of the drawings.

Referring to the drawings, the rail is designated generally as R and the joint bars of-any desiredtype are indicated at B. In the illustration shown, the joint bars are of the so-called toeless type, having a head bearing surface 1 anda rail base bearing portion 2, respectively, for engaging the head fillet of the rail and the base-flange of the rail. Both the bars and the rails are rolled products. As is well known, rolled surfaces, particularlythose in the fishing space of the rails and the bearing surfaces of the bars have inherent relatively minute sur I These irregularities are manifested in the form of minute pits or pockets. Of course, neither a face irregularities.

the fishing space of the rails nor the bearing surfaces of the bars are machined to remove these irregularities.

The rail engaging or load bearing surfaces of the joint bars are provided with longitudinally extending strips or ribbons 4 of any suitable adhesive or mastic composition which will impale a multitude of gritty key elements 5, and which adhesive or mastic composition will dry or set to maintain the many particles of grit in diffused permanent relationship.

As will be seen from Figure 2, when the bar B is drawn to the rail by the usual joint bar C, the grit 5 will become interlocked with the pits or pockets and embedded in the metal of the surfaces 1 and 2 of the joint bars and also in the contacting portions of the rail, namely, the head fillet and the upper surfaces of the base flange of the rail. Thus, it will be apparent upon bolting the bars to the rail that the grit 5 will serve as key means to rigidly and firmly unite the bars at the points of contact so that relative movement or slippage between the bars will not take place.

As previously indicated, it is proposed to provide the rail contacting surfaces 1 and 2 of the joint bars with strips or ribbons of grit extending in the longitudinal direction of the surface. However, as will be apparent from Figure 3, it is not intended to run the grit continuously throughout the bar. That is to say, according to Figure 3, the areas 4-5 of grit are stopped short of the cent-er portion of the bars as indicated at 7 so that the grit will in no way disturb or contact the related surface of the rail ends to avoid encouraging fatigue failures.

The width of the strip must be sufiiciently wide to cover the entire bearing area for the reason that the more dimpled inclusions formed in the surface, the tighter the joint will be locked in place.

Any suitable grit desirable for the purpose may be used, but it has been found that emery grits or In otherwords, it, is'

dimpling or embedment inthe contacting metal surfaces to provide maximum friction. Types of grit which readily crush under the high pressures incident to bolt tensienwould not be suificiently' eflective for the intended-- purpo'se namely; to mechanicallyinterlockthe bars and the railssubstantially throughout the lengthexcept, for an} area mjidway" between ther ends of the bars which would otherwise contact the-rail ends. V

present invention niakes' it' possible 'toplace the rail ends in abutting" relation andanchor them against creepingor slipping h y; ne'er the-railends. 7; a V V Tests have shown that it 'has b'een' possible toincrease resistance to moving or slipping from 1 12,000 poundsto 2445,000 pcit'mds by usingthe irtventi'on described herein. From the foregoing it 1s; believed it' will' be apparent that a distinctive-feature of the invention resides in providing the rail contacting surfaces over a' portion of their length-with a grit capable of embedment in'the metal of both'tl'ie ba'randthe'rail to obtain an effective mechanical interlock, The adhesive coatingis intended to be as aspossible and when first applied is sufiiciently tacky to hold and anchor the grit in place so that upon drying, the adhesive coating has no appreciable thickness which would alter the tolerances between the barand the rail, while a'tthe same time eifectively hold'or impale the grit until thebars-were' applied'to the'rail.

I'clair'n: r a I A railroad rail joint having: no relative longitudinal slippage-between the" rail ends and joint. bars providing the; qualities ofa continuous rail, said joint being composed" of s'tandardrail end portions having the HQPCI'JSIII-V faces of'their'rail bases and the lower surfaces of'their rail? heads provided with minute surface irregularities, joint bars spanning the rail end' portions and' also hav, ing" siinilar surface irregularities which normally contact at least a portion of the surfacesof the bases and the heads of the raile'nd portions, key: means directly applied to and separate from the bar and rail and interposed and he; joints themselves which coni compressed: between. the. normally contacting of the rail end portions and the joint bars and trapped and embeddedirr said-minute'surface irregularities'of the'rail' bases and the rail heads and opposing normally contacting surfaces .of the joint bars, and providing a myriad of interlocking keys between the contacting surfaces of the rail end portions and the contacting surfaces of the joint bars, and rail joint boltsitightly clamping the jointbars and rail end portions together in confined contact with the key means. v

2. A railroad rail joint having no relative longitudinal slippage between-theirail ends andjbinfgbar'sfiprolviding' the qualities of a' continuous r'a'il', said joint being'coinposed, oft standard rail end" portions; having the upper surfaces of their railbases and the lower surfaces of their rail heads providedwith minutesurface irregularities,

joint bars spanning the rail end portions and having sim-' ilar surface irregularities which normally contact at least a portion of the surfaces of the bases, and the headsv of the: rail" end portions? a multiplicity" ofi gritty key elements comprising'granular' material trapped and embedded in said minute surface irregularities and interposed and compressed between the normally contacting" surfaces of therail end'portions and the joint bars and embedded into the surfaces of ther'ail' bases and the rail heads and opposing normally contacting surfaces of the joint bars', and providinga myriad of interlocking keys between the contacting surfaces of the rail end portions and the contacting surfaces of the joint bars; and rail. jointholts-tightly clamping the joint bars and rail end' portionstogether in confined contact. with the key means.

7 a 'Refferencfei'Cftjd file offthis paten t 

